This application claims priority under 35 USC section 119 to Japanese Patent Application No. 11-89559 filed on Mar. 30, 1999, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming system, and more particularly to an image-forming apparatus for a remotely supervising system connected to a plurality of image-forming apparatuses, such as copiers, and a monitoring terminal apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Background
A conventional image-forming system includes a collection of copiers connected over a network. Typically, the system is located at an office or the like (i.e., service center) in which an unspecified number of users, or customers, can access the service center via a communication line, for example a public line. In such a conventional supervising system, each of the copiers is situated remotely from the service center. The service system collects supervisory information, such as usage and maintenance data, from the copiers for servicing purposes. An example of usage data includes the number of copy sheets; maintenance data may include information on the various sections and parts of the copier. This information may be gathered by the service center by the copier executing an auto call generation function that is triggered by a self-diagnosis program within the copier itself. That is, the copier initiates a call to the service center on its own to report results of the self-diagnosis. Alternatively, the service center may initiate communication with the copier to obtain information. Once the information is collected, a center operator typically reviews the information in form of a report at a terminal and executes the proper measures remotely. For example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Numbers 3-161763, 3-161766, and 3-162055, a report activity indicating an abnormality can be quickly and economically disseminated to multiple terminals. A drawback with such a system is that when a supervisory terminal is overwhelmed with report information, there can be considerable delay in acting upon these reports. This problem grows worse as greater number of copiers are deployed. The consequence of this delay is that potentially urgent maintenance cannot be timely performed, which results in poor response time for the users. In other words, the user or customer experiences a lower level of service. Therefore, to prevent degraded level of service for the customer, one approach is to increase the number of supervisory terminals and center operators. However, this approach entails significant costs; e.g., equipment and labor costs. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to overcome the above problems and to provide a novel image-forming apparatus remotely supervising system that includes a plurality of image-forming apparatuses; a monitoring terminal apparatus disposed in a service center and connected to the plurality of image-forming apparatuses via a public line; a report information-transmitting device configured to transmit report information from each image-forming apparatus to the service center; a report information-storing device configured to store the report information received form the image-forming apparatuses; a report information displaying device configured to display contents of report information stored in the report information-storing device, a not-yet-dealt-elapsing time counting device configure to count a not-yet-dealt-elapsing time period per report information stored in the report information-storing device; a comparing device configured to compare each not-yet-dealt-elapsing time period of the report information with a predetermined time period; and an informing device configured to inform through the displaying device an operator of the effect or report information whose not-yet-dealt-elapsing time period exceeds the predetermined time period.
In another embodiment, one or more service stations are configured to deliver a service person for dealing the report information transmitted from the plurality of image-forming apparatuses are connected to the image-forming apparatus supervising system.
In yet another embodiment, the comparing device periodically executes the comparison at a predetermined interval.
In yet another embodiment, the comparing device periodically executes the comparison at a predetermined interval.
In yet another embodiment, the predetermined Interval is changeable.
In yet another embodiment, said predetermined time is changeable.
In yet another embodiment, the report information-transmitting device is disposed in each of the plurality of image-morning apparatuses.
In yet another embodiment, the report activity includes abnormality of the image-forming apparatus which requires urgent maintenance.
In yet another embodiment, the report information-storing device is disposed in the monitoring terminal apparatus.
In yet another embodiment, the not-yet-dealt-elapsing time counting device is disposed in the monitoring terminal apparatus.
In yet another embodiment, the informing device is disposed in the monitoring terminal device.
In yet another embodiment, the monitoring terminal apparatus includes a confirmation information-transmitting device configured to transmit confirmation information indicating reception of report information by the report information-receiving device to an image-forming apparatus as a transmission source of the report information.
In yet another embodiment, the confirmation information-transmitting device transmits the confirmation information when report information is displayed on the report information-displaying device.
In yet another embodiment, each of the plurality of image-forming apparatuses includes an operation related information-transmitting device configured to transmit operation related information to the service center after said report information is transmitted to the service center by the report information-transmitting device and operation related information is inputted.
In yet another embodiment, the operation related information includes information-indicating completion of repair for the image-forming apparatus.
In yet another embodiment, the monitoring terminal apparatus includes a report information deleting device configured to delete report information stored in the report information-storing device when an operation related information corresponding to the report information is transmitted from one of the plurality of image-forming apparatuses.
In yet another embodiment, the informing device is configured to inform the effect or report information in accordance with either the first informing method or the second informing method, when each not-yet-dealt-elapsing time of the report information stored in the report information-storing device is compared with a predetermined time period in order, and any one of the not-yet-dealt-elapsing time s exceeds the predetermined time period.
In yet another embodiment, the monitoring terminal apparatus includes an informing method designating device configured to designate either the first informing method or the second informing method.
In yet another embodiment, the first informing method informs the operator of report information through the report information displaying device and the second informing method transmits report information to another terminal apparatus so that the report information is informed by the other terminal apparatus.
In yet another embodiment, the second terminal apparatus is the service station.
In yet another embodiment, the first and second informing methods are selectively predetermined depending on a customer of the image-forming apparatus.
In yet another embodiment, the first informing method and the second informing method is selectively predetermined depending on a model of the image-forming apparatus.
In yet another embodiment, the first informing method and the second informing method is selectively predetermined depending on a service station.
In yet another embodiment, the monitoring terminal apparatus includes a changing device configured to change the predetermined time period according to a customer of the image-forming apparatus.
In yet another embodiment, the monitoring terminal apparatus includes a changing device configured to change the predetermined time period according to a model of the image-forming apparatus.
In yet another embodiment, the monitoring terminal apparatus includes a changing device configured to change the predetermined time period according to a service station.
In yet another embodiment, a playing color of report information displayed on the report information displaying device is dynamically changed according to the not-yet-dealt-elapsing time period, when the first informing method is designated by the informing method designating device and a not-yet-dealt-elapsing time period corresponding to the displayed report information exceeds the predetermined time period.
In yet another embodiment, the report information is transmitted to a remote terminal apparatus via the public line, when the second informing method is designated by the informing method designating device and a not-yet-dealt-elapsing time period corresponding to any report information exceeds the predetermined time period.
In yet another embodiment, the remote terminal apparatus has a display for informing the effect or report information transmitted from the terminal apparatus.
In yet another embodiment, the remote terminal apparatus is a personal computer.
In yet another embodiment, the report information transmitted to the remote terminal device is discriminated from the other report information stored in the report information-storing device.